In the event you are unable to upgrade before the End of General Support (EOGS) and are active on Support and Subscription, you have the option to purchase extended support in one year increments for up to two years beyond the EOGS date.

Expect this to be more costly than general support

SLAs are more akin to that of basic support rather than production support

Technical Guidance for vSphere 5.5, primarily through the self-help portal, will be available until September 19 2020

During the Technical Guidance phase, VMware does not offer new hardware support, server/client/guest OS updates, new security patches or bug fixes unless otherwise noted — for example, there was no SPECTRE/Meltdown security patches released for vSphere 5.1

Common REST API Framework: Will feature between all VMware solutions going forward to make scripting/automation easier and more consistent

Predictive DRS

Ties into your vRealize Ops Mgr deployment

Using trend data, will ensure your cluster resources are allocated to best suit the trends; eg: Think of your payroll server, it idles for most of the month. Then last day of the month it runs at full resource utilisation whilst it churns through the payment runs for employees

Pro-Active HA: Detects hardware conditions of the ESXi host, allowing the ability to evacuate the Virtual machines before hardware issues cause an outage

Does your vSphere system includes VMware solutions or plug-ins? If so, you'll need to verify that they are compatible with the vCenter Server or vCenter Server Appliance version to which you are upgrading

Similarily, you need to ensure that any VMware based products or 3rd party applications that tie into vCenter support the latest versions

Check VMware KB2147289, where there's a list of the VMware Solutions which need to be considered during a vSphere 6.5 upgrade, and which may need upgrading first, along with the upgrade sequence, which include a possible 8 products that need upgrading before vCenter.

Single Sign On

Single Sign On has now been migrated into the Platform Services Controller (PSC), which deals with identity management for administrators and applications that interact with the vSphere platform. There's no longer the option to distribute vSphere components such as Web Client, Inventory Service, vCenter, to different servers.

Services which are held in the PSC include:

VMware Licence Service VMware Component Manager

VMware Security Token Service

VMware Common Logging Service

VMware Syslog Health Service

VMware Authentication Framework

VMware Certificate Service

VMware Directory Service

Consolidating SSO Domains

If you need to consolidate your SSO Domains, do this in 5.5, before the upgrade ( KB 2033620)

Enhanced replaces vCenter Linked Mode (which needs to be uninstalled before the migration) and connects multiple vCenter Server systems together by using one or more Platform Services Controllers, letting you view and search across all linked vCenter Server systems and replicate roles, permissions, licenses, policies, and tags.

During the migration or upgrade process a mixed environment is supported

There is no time frame in which to complete your upgrade when in mixed mode, however the advice from VMware is to do this as soon as possible

One single SSO domain

Multiple SSO sites if needed

Simple Embedded Install

vCenter + PSC installed on the same Server.

External PSC Deployment

This allows two vCenter servers to be connected and will also enable the Enhanced Linked Mode. This diagram also demonstrates the mixed mode deployment, with both vCenter 5.5 and vCenter 6.5 connecting the PSC.

This highly available PSC deployment requires a load balancer to be deployed, allowing the vCenter servers to connect to the load balanced domain name for HA purposes.

The final diagram shows an example of the deprecated topologies, such as two connecting two embedded deployments together, or connecting a single vCenter server to an embedded deployment. As a general rule, if you have multiple vCenters which you need to be part of the same deployment, you will need an External PSC.

New VMs/Appliances may be deployed during the upgrade, hence the need to have your networking details on hand

Build a Checklist

Build a table for your software and versions you will upgrade to, include notes/web links

Detail the upgrade sequence for the various components that need upgrading eg:

Ensure that any support tickets (internal or with external support) that are open and cover hardware/services which interact with your VMware platform are resolved first before the upgrade

Ensure that you have a backup prior to starting the upgrade process, along with a recovery plan in case you need to revert back

Open a support request with VMware Support prior to starting your upgrade process—it will expedite the process should any issues come up.Below is a screenshot of VMware confirming the details they would need for a proactive ticket in regards to upgrading NSX

The image below shows the conflicting VIBs in the HPE Customised image.

vSphere 6.5 no longer supports the following processors:

Intel Xeon 51xx series

Intel Xeon 30xx series

Intel core 2 duo 6xxx series

Intel Xeon 32xx series

Intel core 2 quad 6xxx series

Intel Xeon 53xx series

Intel Xeon 72xx/73xx series

VMware is announcing discontinuation of its third party virtual switch (vSwitch) program, and plans to deprecate the VMware vSphere APIs used by third party switches in the release following vSphere 6.5 Update 1 ( KB 2149722)

Upgrading the VCSA 6.5 to a later version

Login to the vCenter Server appliance 6.5 VAMI page using the URL (https://vCenter-appliance-name:5480) and login with the root credentials

Verify that the software and hardware components, drivers, firmware, and storage I/O controllers that you plan on using are supported by VMware vSAN for 6.6 and later, and are listed on the VMware vSAN Compatibility Guidewebsite

Verify that you are using the latest patched version of VMware vSAN prior to upgrade. Please review VMware KB 2146381

The above screenshot shows that to upgrade to VSAN 6.6.1, you need to be on ESXi 5.5 Express Patch 7, which sits between 5.5 u2 and 5.5 u3. This particular patch fixes a bug of vSAN data availability after an upgrade to vSphere 6.0 or higher.

Upgrade vShield Manager to NSX Manager

vCloud Network security & vShield Manager are now end of life (19th September 2016), and is not supported by vCenter 6.5